Follow CASW

The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing is committed to improving the quality and quantity of science news reaching the public. Directed and advised by distinguished journalists and scientists, CASW develops and funds programs that encourage accurate and informative writing about developments in science, technology, medicine and the environment.

CASW P.O. Box 910Hedgesville, WV 25427304-754-6786

CASW is recognized by GuideStar for our commitment to transparency in sharing information important to donors.

“Live scribing” captures shared experience of 2012 talks

Live drawing by Perrin Ireland, who attended ScienceWriters2012 as a CASW traveling fellow, added a novel dimension to both the New Horizons and NASW sessions. We asked Perrin to tell us more about “live scribing” as a way of interpreting and communicating science.

Follow these links to see high-resolution images of Perrin's drawings, shown here in thumbnails:

My name is Perrin Ireland. I’m a science scribe, a science doodler, a visual science storyteller.

Live scribing, or graphically capturing, a scientific presentation is permission to perform how I’ve learned my entire life: by doodling. With no prior knowledge of the talk, I set up my boards, get out my markers, listen and draw what I hear and see.

People often ask me how I keep track of everything that’s going on during a talk, and it’s something I like to cover in my workshops. It’s a skill that one only learns through practice. I’ve developed three or four holding tanks in my mind, and different elements of the scribing process temporarily land in each of them. I’m listening to what’s being said, and I’m deciding what visual metaphors I’ll use to describe it. I’m also in the process of catching up on what was just said while I finish the corresponding image. I check my watch to estimate how much time is left in the talk and thus how much space I should leave for the remainder. I’m thinking about the structure and flow of the visual, and I’m planning which elements I’ll punch up with some color when the talk is finished, before people come up to talk to me and take my picture with the piece.

I learn by drawing, and most of the world learns by seeing. It is no surprise to me that the visuals I produce are wildly popular at an event like SciWri12—scientists, science writers and consumers of science alike feel an intuitive pull to the drawings because the drawings tell their story. What’s most important about the drawing is that it convey a shared experience. Audience members often come up to me and say, “That was exactly what I saw in my head!” or, “I love that you captured this joke that she made.” When I scribe, it’s not just that I listen to the speaker—I think some part of me listens to the experience of the entire room and channels that opportunity to represent a collective experience.

A palpable sense of relief comes from scientists and science communicators when I capture a complicated talk. And there's a growing impulse that can be seen in renewed public interest in science cafes, science radio shows, and science television shows: science no longer wants to be the inaccessible princess in the castle tower. She wants to tell her story like the human that she is. Scribing captures complex scientific ideas as part of the human experience that drives them. Acting as a channel for this process is indeed a privilege.—Perrin Ireland, @experrinment

An artist with a degree in biology from Brown University, Perrin Ireland serves as senior science communications specialist at the Natural Resources Defense Council San Francisco office. Her animated science stories have appeared on the Scientific American blog network, the Scripps Oceanographic Institution’s Explorations webpage, and at the Dublin and New York Imagine Science Film Festivals. Perrin also facilitates workshops to educate participants about visual ways to capture scientific content and convey complex scientific concepts.

CASW was incorporated in 1959 as a nonprofit, tax-exempt 50l(c)(3) educational organization.